ABC executives regret their “knee-jerk” decision to fire Roseanne Barr, and now believe that the network’s spin-off series The Conners will fail under the weight of its own politically correct hubris, reports the Daily Mail, citing two anonymous execs.
“We didn’t think it through properly. What Roseanne did was wrong but we shouldn’t have rushed to fire her. It was almost a knee-jerk reaction by Ben [Sherwood] and Channing [Dungey] who should have launched an investigation,” said one insider, who added “This would have given them more time to listen to the public, advertisers and cast members to determine the best decision.”
The Roseanne reboot – which quickly became ABC’s #1 top-rated series in April, was quickly derailed after the network suddenly fired star Roseanne Barr after she compared former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to if the “Muslim brotherhood & Planet of the Apes had a bay,” comments which were condemned by Dungey as “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”
Barr, 65, was fired before a single advertiser pulled out, just three months into the show’s return. Her co-stars immediately turned on her, publicly shunning Roseanne for her tweet.
Roseanne immediately apologized:
Many conservatives at the time pointed out that while Roseanne was fired, MSNBC host Joy Reid was allowed to keep her job despite making anti-gay, anti-Muslim blog posts several years ago over a sustained period – and then lying about it.
The vastly different treatment of the two TV personalities has once again raised questions over the treatment of conservatives in Hollywood.
Although many applauded the network for taking swift action against the actress, the cancellation marked a premature and unfortunate end to the revival which had been considered an overall success.
Prior to Barr’s tweet, however, the show had already received criticism for Roseanne’s portrayal of a Trump supporter and its attempts to confront social issues involving race and politics.
According to one source, ABC was aware of what they ‘were getting’ when they hired the outspoken actress and rebooted her show, but the inappropriate tweet was the last straw for Dungey, despite Barr’s desperate attempts to save face.
‘They could’ve suspended her from the first few episodes without pay and had her return later on in the season. I mean the season finale saw Roseanne going to the hospital for knee surgery,’ the source added.
‘While they worked out her fate, her character could have faced serious complications and fought for her life, while simultaneously making Roseanne fight for her career with a national apology tour. –Daily Mail
ABC will now attempt to run The Conners on October 16 sans Roseanne – which execs now fear may not go so well.
“When we greenlit The Conners we thought that the public would tune in to see the family return but what we’ve discovered is that people want Roseanne – they don’t want the family by themselves,” another source told The Mail.
‘The marketing and publicity teams are horrified as no matter what promotional material is released – and let’s be honest it’s been limited for a show that launches next Tuesday – Roseanne’s fans come out in force stating that they won’t watch the show.
‘The comments on social media tend to skew in favor of Roseanne and slam The Conners and the cast members who came back. Even dedicated fans of the Conner family feel conflicted about supporting a show that so swiftly eliminated the show’s matriarch and creator.’ –Daily Mail
“In the end the ratings are all that matter – and there are many people at Disney and ABC who are worried that firing Roseanne will see their Tuesday night ratings drop substantially. And should The Conners flop, Channing and her team will have many questions to answer.”
“The whisper across ABC is that they will not even be a quarter of what Roseanne achieved last season.”
An ABC spokesperson told the Mail denied that the network is concerned about the success of the Connors.
To hear more about her firing, supporting Trump, and much, much more, check out Roseanne’s Thursday appearance on the Joe Rogan show:
Hmmmm…..,the ass covering begins before the heads even start to roll!I love how they are admitting that the show will suck without Barr even before it has run a episode!I was never a big Rosanne fan(or tv in general)but even I know enough that the show was not going to work without the MAIN FUCKING CHARACTER!
Hmmmm…..,perhaps I should be a tinsletown exec.!
Jimbolaya, maybe they thought they would put her pic on the mantle piece. Three’s company, Two and a Half Men…
Fuck ABC . This is what happens when you put PC niggers in charge of anything. I’m so disgusted with this shit.
BB, you will never get the job of PC nigger.
BB- I never thought I would see you grieving over a Joo. She must be the only non-liberal joo on the planet ?
“What Roseanne did was wrong…”
What was wrong about it? It was a joke. You could say it wasn’t funny (it was) or it was cruel (it was) or even that it was in poor taste (nah), but right and wrong? How does that standard even apply to her tweet?
This was never about making a good business decision, or even correcting an employee who was out of line, it was about punishing someone for having an opinion that wasn’t in lockstep with her employers. Just admit it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTAfy_nzJiw&t=4570s
Jarret looks like an Ape. What the fuck is the problem…
what is the big deal? Niggers always have looked like apes and will continue to do so.
What dunbasses, the show was literally named after her.
Dungey belongs over at BET not a Peter Principle executive at a real network.
Isn’t it funny with progressives devour each other? The more they tear each other apart, the better it gets. A house divided against itself cannot stand.
The stupidity is so overwhelming that it just hurts to see now.
This is EXACTLY what SHOULD happen – make a bad business decision (for political / ideological reasons), lose your shirt in revenues, go broke and someone else buys the assets and makes better decisions until …
What? ABC won’t be sold even if it loses money? It’s owned by Disney, some of whose other businesses still (somehow) make money to cover ABC’s losses? They won’t sell ABC until Disney itself is going down the tubes because a national propaganda outlet is too useful to let go, even when totally mismanaged?
Fine … now maybe it’s time to watch DISNEY lose money on bad business decisions (for political / ideological reasons) …
All too true.
The boneheads at ABC seen to have a perpetual case of having their heads up
their asses.
They did the same thing to Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing last year.
But Fox bought the rights and re-launched it this year (it’s on tonight).
And so far the ratings for LMS are phenomenal:
https://constitution.com/the-ratings-are-in-for-last-man-standing-reboot-and-theyre-stunning/
Love the show.
I like the show but hate the laugh track.
Interesting that this post gets more comments than the abortion post that only had 12. Kinda reflects society as a whole.
Not really interesting.
Abortion’s been done to death (no pun intended); there’s no arguments there that haven’t been hashed and re-hashed 1,000 times.
People want fresh meat.
Lol. Assholes.